Separation of Powers and Executive Clemency in the Civil Law World

Arias, Sonsoles; Kouroutakis, Antonios E.

doi:10.4324/9780367243586-3

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Although we are not aware of any grants of executive clemency specifically made to slow the community spread of infectious disease over the past several decades (as distinct from alleviating an individual prisoner's suffering from disease or reducing risk of infection), prison overcrowding has long been advanced as a justification for clemency (e.g., Judge, 1982;Kobil, 1991;Palenberg, 1983). Clemency has been used for this purpose in pre-pandemic Argentina, Thailand, St Kitts and Nevis, France, and the United States, among many other national jurisdictions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Arias & Kouroutakis, 2020;Pascoe, 2017;Nation News, 2 January 2017;Levy, 2007;Barkow, 2009;Love, 2010). It is through this existing framework that coronavirus clemency may be best understood.…”

Section: Conclusion: a Novel Clemency Paradigm?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive Clemency During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Global Analysis of Law and Practice

Novak

Pascoe

2022

Int Criminol

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Because of the threat that Covid-19 poses to incarcerated populations, executives around the world have used their clemency powers to commute sentences and grant freedom to prisoners in high-risk categories. Coronavirus pardons may be justified on several theories of punishment and have been exercised alongside bureaucratic forms of legal mercy such as parole and compassionate release. Although executive clemency is residual in most legal systems, the novel coronavirus has reactivated the pardon power in many jurisdictions, overcoming significant legal and procedural barriers, albeit with exclusions for particular crimes and categories of offender. This article relays recent global trends in executive clemency granted as a result of Covid-19, drawing out relevant lessons for the academic literature on the topic, as well as for policymakers dealing with future pandemics and other emergencies.

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Section: Conclusion: a Novel Clemency Paradigm?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive Clemency During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Global Analysis of Law and Practice

Novak

Pascoe

2022

Int Criminol

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“…The point must be made that the exercise of the power of pardon does not form part of the trial proceedings, or even the adjudicatory process. It does not determine the guilt or innocence of a defendant/accused and is not intended primarily to enhance the reliability of the trial process (Harris, 2007). The power is available to the executive branch independent of any direct appeal and collateral relief proceedings and it is discretionary.…”

Section: Nature and Extent Of The Presidential Power Of Pardon In Nig...mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Appraisal of the Power of Pardon under Nigerian Law: Lessons from Other Jurisdictions

Ngwoke¹,

Abayomi²

2022

BLR

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The exercise of the presidential pardon power has generated periodic controversies and elicited various reform proposals in Nigeria. The power is often exercised in ways that are clearly at odds with the Nigerian Society's interest, including granting pardons to facilitate narrow partisan interest and other personal ends. Sections 175 and 212 of the Nigerian Constitution, which codifies in Nigeria the sovereign pardon powers available in Britain, worsens the problem and fails to provide guidelines or standards for exercising the power. The need to rationalize and curb pardons has raised significant concerns among legal practitioners as to whether the pardon power is a preor post-conviction instrument, with the Nigerian judiciary weighing in on the side of the post-conviction argument as a way of making pardons fit unto a retributive and equitable system of distributing justice to offenders. Using doctrinal research method, this paper examined the total amplitude of the power within the narrow confines of this riposte provoking issue, especially in the light of the text of the Constitution and the justification or otherwise of the position of the Nigerian judiciary. The paper also adopted the comparative approach by critically examining the position obtainable in the U.K. and USA on the pardon powers of the head of state, and concluded that Nigeria must follow the tradition prevalent in these Common Law countries where the full effect of the power is limitless to the pre-or post-conviction stage.

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Separation of Powers and Executive Clemency in the Civil Law World

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Executive Clemency During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Global Analysis of Law and Practice

Executive Clemency During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Global Analysis of Law and Practice

An Appraisal of the Power of Pardon under Nigerian Law: Lessons from Other Jurisdictions

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